TACLOBAN, Philippines — The death toll from one of the strongest storms on record that ravaged the central Philippine city of Tacloban could reach 10,000 people, officials said Sunday after the extent of massive devastation became apparent and horrified survivors spoke of storm surges as high as trees and winds sounding like the roar of a jumbo jet.

Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths in the province, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor’s figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday.

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"From our Indonesian coal mines, we export 3 million tonnes of coal per year to India and 2.3 million tonnes to the Philippines, while their demand is expected to continue increasing significantly in the long term. We're also dealing with Vietnam for energy sales," Mr Chanin said.

MSCI adds BTS, TMB to indices
Published: 11 Nov 2013 at 00.00 MSCI, the New York-based index provider, is increasing its investment weight on Thailand by adding two Thai stocks to its global indices and 15 to its small capitalisation indices, effective Nov 27. Charamporn Jotikasthira, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), said the skytrain operator BTS Group Holdings Plc (BTS) and TMB Bank (TMB) will be added as components of MSCI Global Standard Indices.

"Since November 2010, the number of Thai stocks as components of the MSCI Global Standard Indices have continuously increased, reflecting the larger size and higher trading liquidity of Thai listed companies. This can help to attract foreign investors to boost their investment weighting in the Thai stock market," he said.

SCG Chemicals seeks No.1 status Confident of regional dominance by 2018
Published: 11 Nov 2013 at 00.00
HUA HIN : SCG Chemicals, a unit of Siam Cement Plc, plans to be the largest petrochemical player in Southeast Asia by 2018, spurred by its ongoing major investments in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Vietnam will be a manufacturing base for commodity petrochemicals, while the Indonesian factory will serve domestic demand coupled with high-value-added (HVA) petrochemical products capacity.

MANILA, Philippines - South Korea's biggest conglomerate, the Samsung Group, on Tuesday said it is offering $1 million in aid to the Philippines, which is recovering from the devastation caused by typhoon Yolanda.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Samsung Group is making the donation through the Red Cross and World Vision Philippines.

Bangkok Bank leads rivals in Lion City
Published: 12 Nov 2013 at 00.00
SINGAPORE : Bangkok Bank's Singapore branch expects to raise the ratio of its Asean customer base to 50% of foreign customers in the next few years, up from 30% now, as the region gears up to form a common market in late 2015.

Overseas clients are the branch's largest portion, representing 80%, and the rest are Thais. The Singapore branch is Bangkok Bank's third-biggest foreign branch in terms of loan portfolio size, behind Hong Kong and China. The bank has 26 overseas branches in 13 countries.

Dusit eyes three-star business
Published: 13 Nov 2013 at 00.00 Dusit International, a local hotel chain, is studying whether to branch into three-star hotels aimed at tapping fast-growing tourism markets such as China and India.

Chief executive Chanin Donavanik said Dusit has been approached by local developers in areas where Dusit Thani and Dusit D2 are located to expand into the three-star segment serving middle-class tourists.

CHIANG RAI - Property development projects in this northernmost province are flourishing, as the area has high potential from an anticipated boom in border trade and new infrastructure development.

To support the city expansion, the Chiang Rai Provincial Administration Organisation will develop the City Line, an electric bus system linking the town with Mae Fah Luang University, a distance of 13 km.Scheduled for completion in 2015, it will comprise four stations, at the Kok River, the airport, Tha Khao Pluak Road and the university.

American tourist arrivals will rise by 5.5% to 1.13 million next year on the back of the US economic recovery, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The TAT forecasts these American travellers will spend 79.5 billion baht, up by 8.23% from this year.

In the first 10 months of 2013, American tourist arrivals increased by 7% year-on-year to 670,000.

I wonder how this will affect property development in KL and Malaysia's GDP in the months/years ahead...

'Surprise' property tax hike in KL after 20 years
by Reme Ahmad

The Straits Times

Publication Date : 14-11-2013

For the first time in two decades, Kuala Lumpur City Hall is raising property taxes in the capital city and surrounding districts, at a time when city dwellers are already complaining about the rising cost of living.

The hike ranges from 10per cent to more than 200 percent, opposition MPs said on Wednesday at a press conference in the lobby of Parliament to highlight the issue.

However, because Malaysian property taxes are relatively low to begin with, the rise is unlikely to be big enough to deter foreign buyers such as Singaporeans.

The increase, which was not officially announced, kicks in next year. It will be the first time in 21 years that KL City Hall - known by its Malay name, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur or DBKL - is raising property taxes. The additional revenue, officials said, will be ploughed back into improving infrastructure such as repairing roads.

Journalism lecturer Susan Tam, 35, said the hike came out of the blue. "What surprised me was that this letter from DBKL said I have only one month to write in my objections, but there was no announcement that this was coming," she said. The new tax for her condo in Taman Tun, an upper middle class residential area, is 19per cent higher at 1,368 ringgit (US$425) a year.

A caller to Bernama Radio on Wednesday complained that the property tax on his home had doubled to 1,800 ringgit ($560) a year. He did not say where he lived, but said it would add to inflation as the "prices of everything have been going up and up".

Opposition MP Tan Kok Wai said the owner of a "low-cost home" in Taman Orkid Desa in his Cheras constituency had received a letter stating a tax jump of 267 percent.

Supalai budgets Bt6 billion for land purchase, foreign ventureSomluck Srimalee
The Nation November 19, 2013 1:00 am24 local projects, investment in Melbourne on the cards next year

Overseas, the company will join with an Australia firm to bid for land in Melbourne. That may start next year. This is the second project abroad after the company took over an office building worth nearly Bt1 billion in Manila early this year.

"Our investment overseas will not exceed 10 per cent of our total assets. That will help us to manage our business risks. It is also part of the diversification of our business when domestic demand shows low growth. This is the way to balance our business in the long term," Prateep said.

SAIC-CP venture mulls second Thai factory
Published: 19 Nov 2013 at 00.00 SAIC Motor-CP Co, the Chinese-Thai car maker, is conducting a feasibility study about investing in a second plant here as it intends to make Thailand its manufacturing base for right-hand-drive vehicles to serve both the local and export markets.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) announced late last year it formed a joint venture with CP Group for first-phase investment of 9 billion baht in the manufacturing facility in Rayong's Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate. SAIC holds a 51% stake in the venture with CP holding the rest.

Asia honours its business stars in Bangkok
Published: 18 Nov 2013 at 13.55
Some of Asia’s biggest business names gathered last week in Bangkok for the 12th Asia Business Leaders Awards, which recognised many executives from the region for their leadership and innovative ways of driving their businesses.

Companies from Thailand, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore were among the key winners with the Lifetime Achievement Award going to Ratan Tata.

Five New Zealand companies made business deals in Thailand yesterday, including partnerships with Thai companies, suggesting New Zealand investors' high confidence in this country.

"I don't think the current political demonstrations will affect business and investment, as New Zealand investors look for long-term investment. Thailand has significant growth in Asean. Many businesses are [looking at] investing and expanding their businesses in Thailand," Key said during an official visit to Thailand.

Effective Measure supports Founder Institute's launch in ThailandThe Nation November 19, 2013 1:00 amThe Founder Institute, a start-up accelerator based in Silicon Valley in the US, has expanded into Thailand, backed by the technology of Effective Measure.

Founded in Australia, Effective Measure is a provider of digital-media planning solutions and online measurement in emerging markets, and says it is supporting the growth of the Southeast Asian entrepreneurial technology sector through a regional alliance with the Founder Institute. The alliance was forged in Singapore and Malaysia in July.

Thailand's economy is not in a recession and the central bank is expected to keep the policy rate unchanged at 2.5%, Thanawat Polvichai, director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), said on Sunday.

"The Thai economy has not slipped into recession and there are signs that it is growing in line with the global economy," Mr Thanawat said. "If the political situation in the country is stable and the world economy recovers, I believe that exports, tourism, investment and domestic consumption in the country will improve in the first quarter of next year." The economy should see growth of 5% to 7% over the next three to five years, he added.

Steven Siew, senior vice-president for accounting and finance, said the company is conducting feasibility studies of new projects in other Asean countries after the success of its business in Vietnam the last two decades.

Dawei bids invited for February
Published: 22 Nov 2013 at 00.00 Firms looking to join the ambitious Dawei deep-sea port scheme should submit bids for its first three project by the end of next February, says Deputy Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan.

Thailand and Myanmar are cooperating on the huge project to build an industrial zone and port at the town of Dawei in eastern Myanmar. "The Myanmar government wants the Dawei project to proceed as rapidly as possible," he said.

Au Bon Pain operator bakes Asean plan
Published: 22 Nov 2013 at 00.00 Mudman Group, the franchisee of Au Bon Pain deli in Thailand, is considering seeking the right to operate the chain in Asean. Chief executive officer Nadim Xavier Salhani said the group operates 60 branches of Au Bon Pain in Thailand and has become the biggest franchisee in the world for the chain.

The company is interested in opening Au Bon Pain in Malaysia and Singapore thanks to their central geographical position and good logistics.

Singapore and Malaysia to form joint work group on high-speed rail link

By Kimberly Spykerman
POSTED: 07 Dec 2013 13:31

SINGAPORE: Singapore and Malaysia are to form a joint work group to discuss and jointly recommend requirements for the proposed high-speed rail link between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

On completing its task, the work group will submit its recommendations on the next phase of the project to the governments of the two countries.

The work group will be formed under the purview of the Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia (JMCIM).

In a statement issued on Saturday, the committee said an agreement to form the joint work group was reached at its meeting in Nusajaya, Malaysia on Friday.

It added that the formation of the work group is a follow-up to the joint announcement on the high-speed rail link made by the prime ministers of the two countries in February.

The meeting also agreed to identify an option for the Singapore-Johor Bahru Rapid Transit System link by the end of 2014. That followed a review of the progress made so far by a transportation links work group, said the statement.

- CNA/ac

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In recent weeks, Indonesia has to cope with a large amount of negative publicity as large capital outflows from the country's financial markets occurred, partly due to weak economic results regarding the current account balance, inflation and the the rupiah. Interest rates are rising, thus eroding people's purchasing power and consequently curbing economic growth. However, the Global Competitiveness Index 2013-2014, released by World Economic Forum, contained a positive outcome for Southeast Asia's largest economy.

The Global Competitiveness Index measures the set of institutions, policies, as well as factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity. In the 2013-2014 edition, after three consecutive years of decline, Indonesia rose from number 50 to number 38 out a total of 148 countries. The World Economic Forum made the following comments on Indonesia's performance in the 2013-2014 edition...

Risks remain high for the Indonesian economy in 2014 with the economy set to slow according to the World Bank’s Economic Quarterly report in December announced on Monday this week in Jakarta.

According to the World Bank, the final quarter of 2013 ends a year of significant economic and policy adjustment in Indonesia to tighter external constraints, with the rupiah depreciating by four percent over the quarter to 13 December (25 per cent year to date), policy rates increasing 25 basis points, and new data showing that growth slowed to 5.6 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter.

Poverty in Indonesia is continuing to decline, according to The World Bank.
PHOTO: DEWI KURNIAWATI
Poverty in Indonesia is continuing to decline, according to The World Bank.

The Indonesian economy in 2014 is likely to record slower economic growth than in recent years which is expected at 5.3 per cent, and faces significant economic risks. The risks to growth are high as the needed adjustments to weaker external balances continue to play out in the domestic economy, and as a result of shifting economic conditions and policies internationally, which may further tighten external financing conditions...

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The new City Momentum Index released by Jones Lang LaSalle names San Francisco, London and Dubai as the three most vibrant cities.

Not just steady GDP growth but a soaring real estate industry and the halo of Expo 2020 have combined to catapult Dubai to third place in the list of the world’s most dynamic cities compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle.

The new City Momentum Index released by the realtor names San Francisco, London and Dubai as the three most vibrant cities, displaying strong short-term socio-economic and commercial real estate momentum as well as longer-term foundations for success.

Chinese cities Shanghai and Wuhan complete the group of the top five. Describing the yardsticks for the index, Jeremy Kelly, LaSalle’s director for global research, said highly dynamic cities are characterised by their speed of innovation and creation of cutting-edge businesses.

New building construction, property price movement and investment in real estate from cross-border investors and corporations are the other factors.

Dubai is also among the eight elite cities that together accounted for one-fourth of the world’s direct commercial real estate investment activity in 2012-2013 and wield “clear economic might on the global stage”.

The other seven are San Francisco, London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The index also clubs Dubai, which will host World Expo 2020, with Tokyo, that will stage the Olympics the same year, calling them resurgent cities gearing up for their respective events with renewed vigour.

However, there’s a note of caution as well. Investors and corporates should note that high momentum poses both opportunity and risk.

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Jakarta is the likeliest emerging city to gain a global role as a young workforce attracts foreign companies, according to a ranking by A. T. Kearney Inc.

Indonesia’s capital led 34 cities in low and middle-income countries in a survey released today by the Chicago-based consulting firm that measures the likelihood of an improved global standing over the next 10 to 20 years. Citing metrics such as business activity, human capital and innovation, the survey ranked Manila second. Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, was third.

Cities in emerging Asia made up half of the top 20, reflecting the potential of a region the Asian Development Bank predicts will grow 6.2 percent this year. With half of its population under the age of 30, Indonesia has lured companies such as L’Oreal SA, the French cosmetics company, which opened its largest factory worldwide there in 2012.

“Jakarta’s demographic advantage is quite significant,” John Kurtz, A. T. Kearney’s Asia-Pacific head, said in a phone interview on April 11. “Indonesia in general has been increasingly recognized by both companies and their counterparts in foreign governments as a rising influence in regional and global politics and regional and global business.”

Infrastructure Development

Jakarta and Manila are benefiting from the emergence of the Asean Economic Community, according to Kurtz. Officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are working toward allowing the free movement of goods, services, investment, capital and skilled labor as part of a European Union-style integration plan, without the common currency, by the end of 2015.

Indonesia ranked 114 out of 177 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index last year, compared to 118 in 2012. Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, frontrunner to become the nation’s next president, has addressed traffic and flooding while making infrastructure development and streamlined tax collection centerpieces of his governance.

“The real challenges for Jokowi and for Jakarta are the same challenges that face the country: to have a coherent long-term plan” to develop infrastructure and combat corruption, Kurtz said, referring to the mayor by his nickname.

The Emerging Cities Outlook ranked five Indian cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore among the top 20. Kuala Lumpur ranked 10th and Beijing 12th, ahead of Johannesburg and Caracas.

Developing Asia’s economic growth will probably accelerate next year, helped by increasing momentum in developed nations, the ADB said this month. The region is forecast by the Manila-based lender to grow 6.4 percent next year.

“Incomes could keep rising, people have a lot more spending power,” said Euben Paracuelles, a Singapore-based economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. The ranking “is definitely a ‘look East’ kind of indicator, that people are increasingly seeing the prospects of Asia in the longer term,” he said.

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Joko Widodo—one of Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders—is declared President-elect of Indonesia. Now he just needs his opponent to concede.

Joko Widodo, a self-made millionaire from the slums, is Indonesia’s next president. On Tuesday, the country’s election commission pronounced Widodo, who is popularly known as Jokowi, the winner of its July 9 presidential contest. While many suspected this was the case—Jokowi, currently the governor of Jakarta, claimed victory on election night—the country was kept in suspense by the election commission, which counts ballots—all 130 million of them—by hand.

In the days running up to the election, pollsters had called the race “too close to call.” In the end, it wasn’t. Jokowi, garnered 53.15% of the vote, besting his opponent Prabowo Subianto, a former military general who is banned from the U.S. for past human rights abuses, by some 8 million votes.

So far, that margin has not been enough to convince Prabowo to concede, however. The strongman claims to have uncovered millions of phantom votes and has vowed to contest the election results in court. Independent observers have called the election fair.

Prabowo has three days to file a challenge with Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, which would be required to rule on the matter by August 20. And even members of Prabowo’s legal team have said there is no point, according to Shaun Levine, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group.

But the danger, in any case, isn’t so much a protracted legal fight, but rather upheaval in the streets. The matter has some in Indonesia braced for election-related violence. Three-thousand riot police were dispatched to election commission headquarters and current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued stern warnings that violence will not be tolerated.

Still, the show of strength hasn’t calmed everyone. Harry Su of Bahana Securities noted in an analyst report today that “expensive cars [have] disappeared from many car showrooms.” Levine doubts that Yudhoyono, in the final months of his decade-long presidency, will permit any violence lest it tarnish his record in office.

Jokowi, who got into politics less than a decade ago, is an improbable successor to Yudhoyono. The candidate, who grew up in the slums of Solo, a mid-sized Indonesian city, was the first in his family to go to college. He studied forestry, started the furniture export business that made him rich, and then ran for mayor. He cracked down on corruption, cleaned up and was named runner-up for the World Mayor title in 2012. That same year, having excited much of the Indonesian public—cue the comparisons to Obama—he was elected governor of Jakarta. FORTUNE ranked him No. 37 on our 2014 list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders.

Now, when Jokowi takes office October 20, he will be leading the fourth largest country on earth, and overseeing the largest economy in Southeast Asia.

Investors are (relatively) happy about that, but it won’t be an easy task. Indonesia has blown too much of its budget on politically popular fuel subsidies at the expense of infrastructure, health and education spending in recent years, says Levine. In addition to reorienting spending, Jokowi will likely have to untangle a “complex web of government regulations” that have kept many foreign investors at bay, Levine says.

“Investors should probably temper their expectations about what Joko Widodo will be able to accomplish, not because he doesn’t want to implement reforms but because of the structural challenge,” says Levine. “There are 10 political parties in parliament that he’s going to have to work with, which will make pushing through politically unpopular economic reforms difficult.” Jokowi’s party has only 19% of seats in parliament; his coalition makes up 38%.

In any case, says Levine of Jokowi’s win—and the 70 million votes behind it: “This is very, very positive story for democracy in Indonesia.” Indeed.

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